I’ve been too long away from my blogging duties. As an excuse, I have had two trips out of town since I last wrote.

The first trip was flying back east to visit family. My mother is 89 and needs a visit from me at least twice a year. It was good to see her. But she is changing pretty fast, which is hard to watch. Food wise, I ate too much wheat on the trip. It was everywhere. And family members served pork, corn, processed mixes…you name it. It was a diet disaster and I succumbed to most of it.

The second trip was this past weekend. It was the annual regional barbershop competition in Spokane. It is my favorite weekend of the year. Hundreds of middle-aged women in one hotel singing and partying. Everything about the weekend is pure escapism from real life. It’s a hoot. I actually made mostly good eating choices this time. I made sure that on Friday that I did not touch wheat or any other avoids that would hinder my voice. We competed on Saturday. Our chorus made fourth place, which wasn’t too shabby. We were third last year. After the competition, I found I had no desire for avoids at dinner and ordered beer, onion soup and spinach salad. I’m sure there were some avoid ingredients involved, but not as many as there could have been had I chosen a hamburger and fries, or whatever.

I obviously have been eating too much. After these two trips I am up four pounds. And nothing has budged from strict diet adherence over the past two days. I’ve got another trip scheduled in two weeks. Hopefully I can be good until then.